BRIDGEPORT -- The legal team representing Johnathan Nathans, the former Bridgeport Bluefish catcher seeking damages in the infamous mound-charging, bat-swinging incident of August 14, 2007, has a mountain to climb as the trial grinds to a close in federal court.

First, there is Nathans himself. Although he's testified that nary a day goes by without nausea, dizziness and headaches, the testimony on Thursday revealed that he's competed in a number of road races since 2008, including four marathons.

He drives a car, is married and is an attorney in a major Portland, Maine, law firm. It is a life that many people would envy.

Then there's the courtroom itself. The trial is presided over by Federal Judge Warren William Eginton. He's still as sharp as McClellan's saber, but he's 90 years old now and he's been suffering through the pain of a broken hip. He can't even make it up the three small steps to his bench anymore; he runs the proceedings from a small table so he can stay in his wheelchair.

On Thursday morning, before jury members took their seats, one of Nathans' lawyers, Craig Smith, even went so far as to suggest to Eginton that the judge's presence in the courtroom could be swaying the jury against his client.

"This is my client's only shot, and we feel that your sacrifice is amazing, but let us know if it's too much for you," Smith said, suggesting in a roundabout way that the contrast between the fit Nathans and the crumpled judge might have an effect on the jury.

He added that Nathans "seems like someone that we'd all like to be as fit as."

Smith also wants to have one of the jurors removed for behavior that appears to be working against his client. Five men and three women remain in the panel.

Finally there's Nathans himself, who while testifying that his life is shackled daily by dizzy spells, "red zone" headaches and vomiting, has been walking in and out of the courtroom with grace. When on the witness stand, he's answered complex questions easily and without hesitation.

Nathans is suing Jose Offerman and the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, claiming that injuries the catcher suffered in the mound-charging brawl are the product of professional baseball's failure to prevent violence.

Nathans is seeking $4.8 million from both Offerman and the Ducks. In the fracas, Nathans was trying to protect his pitcher, Matt Beech.

The defense team -- Eileen Becker is the Ducks' lawyer and Frank Riccio II represents Offerman -- has questioned whether Offerman's bat even struck Nathans. The only pictorial record of the incident was a rapid-fire series of 89 photos shot by Connecticut Post photographer Christian Abraham. None of them clearly shows the bat striking Nathans.

On Thursday it was the defense's turn to question Nathans, whose answers revealed that he didn't seem to have problems with classes at the University of Maine School of Law or with his bar exams, which he passed on the first attempt. His job as a first-year associate at a big law firm demands long hours and attention to countless details -- something someone with a serious brain injury would find impossible, the defense team suggested.

Riccio and Becker also dredged up Nathans' earlier baseball injuries, one involving a broken neck vertebra. And they have mentioned the catcher's inglorious baseball career.

After three years in the Red Sox farm organization, Nathans was let go by Boston in January 2005. He found work playing for various independent league teams -- the North Shore Spirit, the Lancaster Barnstormers, the Newark Bears and finally the Bridgeport Bluefish. This suggested that the plaintiff's shot at getting back to the majors was all but nonexistent.

Still, Nathans has maintained that he "didn't get to leave baseball on my own terms."

The defense is expected to also make the point that despite all of the badly injured athletes over the years, instances of them suing other players for damages are almost unheard of. Final arguments in the trial are expected early next week.